Instructions
Individual Assessment, MGMT 211, S2, 2025 (20% of final course grade)
Due date: 24th August, via Canvas
Reflective essay of 1800 words (excluding reference list) and submitted as a Word document. Please see below for the assignment brief.
TASK:
Write a critical reflective essay that explores your personal experiences within an organisational context through the lens of three course topics covered in Weeks 2 to 5.
Examine and demonstrate how your chosen organisational theories and concepts help you make sense of, challenge, or reframe. these experiences. You can use any organisational context e.g., university, work, sports organisations, religious institutions, clubs, school, etc. Choose an experience that involved complex dynamics, such as leadership, conflict, collaboration, or change, and had a meaningful impact on your thinking or behaviour.
You should be showcasing your understanding of the topic content as well as your critical reflective thinking and learning skills.
Your reflection should integrate both personal insight and organisational analysis by completing a full reflective cycle as per Gibbs' model of reflection.
Gibbs' reflective cycle provides a systematic approach in examining experiences to aid active learning and it has six stages (description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusions, and action plan). While you should not use the cycle’s stages as headings, your essay must clearly demonstrate each stage. Further details on Gibbs' model are available here.
Other helpful resources include the University of Auckland's Learning Hub (reflective thinking and writing), reflective essays in Business and Economics, and a straightforward guide to effective reflective writing.
Compulsory Analytical Element
As part of your analysis, you need to apply one or more of Gareth Morgan’s organisational metaphors to interpret your chosen organisational experience. These metaphors offer different ways of understanding organisational dynamics, and can help uncover hidden assumptions, power structures, or cultural patterns.
You may choose from metaphors such as:
Organisations as ‘Machines’
Organisations as ‘Organisms’
Organisations as ‘Brains’
Organisations as ‘Cultures’
Organisations as ‘Political Systems’
Organisations as ‘Psychic Prisons’
Organisations as ‘Flux and Transformation’
Organisations as ‘Instruments of Domination’
These will be introduced in Week 1 and explored further in Week 4. Additional reading resources will be provided to support your use of metaphors in this assignment.
Note: The use of generative AI (Gen-AI) tools to produce, in whole or in part, your submitted assignment is not permitted. If you use Gen-AI, you may be in breach of the Student Academic Conduct Statute.
Guidelines:
The reflective essay is based on the assumption that learning becomes more meaningful when new information (ideas, theories/concepts, frameworks) is explored through the lens of personal perspectives and experience.
Select three topics from Weeks 2 to 5 that resonated with you, intrigued you, or challenged your thinking (Week 2 - Personality, Values & Emotions; Week 3 - Attitudes & Job Satisfaction; Week 4 - Organisational Structure Week 5 - Groups & Work Teams).
Describe relevant personal experiences and critically analyse them using organisational theories and concepts from the three weeks.
Completing a full reflective cycle requires that you analyse past organisational experiences, reflect on present learning, and discuss influence on future actions using a critical perspective.
Apply Morgan’s organisational metaphors to deepen your analysis.
Your essay should help you to identify and question your own assumptions and behaviour in workplace situations and develop relevant insights into your potential future roles.
Becoming critically self-reflective also requires close examination of your interactions, reflexes, and understandings from multiple perspectives to uncover silent voices, assumptions, or biases.
Use at least ten academic sources, including course materials and at least three peer-reviewed journal articles beyond the course readings. These sources should be used to support, challenge, or extend your reflections, not simply to fill space. Avoid citing sources without any meaningful analysis. Just focus on depth of engagement with key ideas rather than quantity.
Conclude with insights into how this reflection has influenced your understanding of organisations and your potential future roles within them.
You must follow the APA 7th edition referencing style. for your in-text citations and references. It will be a fatal error if either or both of these are omitted from your reflective essay. APA style. advice can be found here.
We are looking at the quality and depth of your critical reflection, your academic writing and referencing skills, as well as your own learning from the course through your insights and application of the course content.
Formatting and submission:
Your assignment must be submitted as a WORD (doc or docx) file on the assignment page on CANVAS by the 25th of August 2025, 11:59pm.
Your full name and student ID number should be placed in the header of each page and page numbers in the footer. Pages can be aligned left or justified, and 1.5 line spacing should be used. Note, 1800 words +/- 10%.
Please use easy-to-read fonts and font sizes like Calibri, Arial, or Times New Roman - all at 12pt size; or Verdana (11pt size).
All submissions will be checked through the Turnitin.
Learning outcomes to be met:
Critically evaluate the key characteristics and issues in understanding individuals, groups, and organisations. (Capability 3 and 4)
Develop well-reasoned arguments about the issues associated with individuals and groups in organisations. (Capability 4)
Examine complex real-world scenarios using knowledge and skills from the course. (Capability 4)